Brown calls regulation of electric rates “communism”

District E Councilman Mike Sullivan, until January by far the Council’s most conservative member, was so outflanked from the right by a Council newcomer Wednesday that he found himself uttering into his microphone: “I am not a communist.”

The energy company Entergy is proposing raising rates on 1,500 of his Kingwood constituents by about 13 percent. He championed the Council’s denial of Entergy’s request.

Helena Brown

But when the item came up for discussion, District A Councilwoman Helena Brown announced she would vote against the denial. That is, she would support the rate increase.

“We need to support their rate increase because it is justified,” Brown said. She then continued:

I understand my colleague Sullivan expressed the concerns of his constituents in the Kingwood area. But I also understand the folks in Kingwood are conservatives. They do not believe in the regulation of rates of businesses. That’s communism. I will be standing in support of this business and the need that they have.

“Truthfully, I don’t think you have a clue what Kingwood believes in,” Sullivan shot back.

Mike Sullivan

Sullivan explained that a study commissioned by a coalition of cities in Entergy’s service area concluded that there was insufficient evidence to support a rate increase.

Brown further argued that if Entergy’s customers in Kingwood did not like the rate increase, they should find a market-based solution, not a governmental one: switch electric providers. However, City Attorney David Feldman explained after the meeting, in the case of the Kingwood residents, there is no choice. They cannot change providers, he said.

Update: Brown later emailed a longer explanation of her position. She pointed out that the city recently allowed taxis to raise their rates 13 percent but denied Entergy and questioned the inconsistency. She also wrote that Entergy has invested $23 million in transmission line and substation improvements in Montgomery County that will help avoid outages during natural disasters such as hurricanes.

84 Responses

Brown is such an idiot! She’s an embarrassment to her district and the whole city. Hopefully her constituents will see this and vote her out for someone who is not a constant obstructionist. She is a hog for the media attention that she will say anything. I guess the most dangerous place in City Hall is to be between Brown and a camera or microphone.

Want to know why that is? It’s because the rules for the electric companies were favored to them, not the consumer, when the industry was “deregulated.” You didn’t think conservative lawmakers would turn their backs on those who support them the most, did you? FYI, Texas has the second highest electric rates in the country.

And this is exactly the kind of stupidity (and stupid people) we’ll continue to see in Texas politics, so long as the “I’m more Conservative than You!” mentality reigns supreme. This ignorant woman doesn’t have a clue what “communism” means, much less what the ins-and-outs of utility regulation means.

Sure beats the “I’m more liberal than you are” mantra. Liberalism always leads to totalitarism which leads to fascism and millions murdered by their own governments. Over 100 million last century alone.

If by your comment you mean that the conservative backlash to liberal reforms often has a fascist tendency than I quite agree. If you meant that liberals are fascists then you have no idea what the terms ‘fascist’ or ‘liberal’ even mean.

Liberalism “leads to totalitarianism, which leads to fascism?” Wow! That’s some revisionist history, Frank! So, I guess you’re saying Hitler, Mussolini, and Franco were all liberals? That is a new interpretation of history. I think most people consider them unabashed right-wingers, even if the Nazis did use the word “socialism” in their name. Most experts say they weren’t really socialists in practice. There is one good thing about Helena Brown. She is making me appreciate Brenda Stardig (who she beat) more and more all the time.

Frank bombasted, “Liberalism always leads to totalitarism which leads to fascism and millions murdered by their own governments.”

Yeah, ’cause that so totally happened during the Roosevelt administration. And Truman’s. And Kennedy’s, and Johnson’s, and Carter’s, and Clinton’s.

Heck, Eisenhower and Nixon were pretty liberal by modern standards. Obviously their two-term reigns lead straight to totalitarianism and interment camps for the mechanistic murder of American citizens.

Oh, it didn’t? I guess Frank is just utterly, totally, and ridiculously wrong.

I, for one, welcome our Communist overlords. I believe it was Stalin who first proposed the idea of bicycle lanes. And who can forget Marx’s grand proclamation for the workers to take control of the means of production by voting in right of center councilmembers who will vote for their interests.

If there is a recall provision in the City of Houston Charter, it’s time to start collecting signatures to remove Helena Brown from office. She is uninformed, incompetent, and a bad joke on the citizens of Houston and especially her district. She doesn’t have a clue.

Not that any of the city council members understand an electricity rate proceeding (state regulators pretty much don’t either – another reason for unbundling and moving away from monopoly-based “cost-of-service” rates), but Helena Brown clearly does not. Based on what I’ve read, she doesn’t have much of a clue about anything, she just espouses what she believes is conservative ideology. What a dweeb!

So nice to have City Government run by people like Helena Brown who have no clue as to what is going on or how things work. The company she is supporting is a regulated monopoly…no free enterprise involved…customers can’t change. Like in a communist country only one government controlled supplier allowed.

@rts, Entergy is not controlled by the government (unlike Austin or San Antonio’s utilities). It’s a private company.

@Frank, Entergy is not a part of ERCOT. They operate their own transmission grid which is operated for them by the Southwest Power Pool. Entergy is still a fully integrated utility, meaning they own the generation plants, the transmission & distribution grid and they sell to the retail customer. As such, they’re the only choice customers in the Kingwood area have. Customers living in the ERCOT service area, which is most of Texas, do have a choice in retail providers (way more than 6). Visit the power to choose website to see all of the retailers available in your area.

@Steve Palmer, a city council member has no authority to deregulate the Kingwood service area. Entergy has tried for years to enter the ERCOT grid, but has been rejected repeatedly because it would cost upwards of $1B to integrate them into the ERCOT system. Those costs would be borne by the entire ERCOT service area, not just Entergy’s customers, resulting in a 20% increase in prices for customers in ERCOT’s system. Entergy’s existing customers also see no advantage as for years they’ve enjoyed electricity rates considerably lower than those in ERCOT’s deregulated market.

@Steve Palmer, a council member doesn’t have the authority to deregulate Entergy’s service area. Entergy’s been trying to enter the ERCOT system for years, but has been repeatedly rejected. The cost would be upwards of $1B to integrate them. The cost would be borne by the entire ERCOT service area, not just Entergy’s customers, resulting in a 20% increase in rates. Entergy’s customers have for years enjoyed rated considerably lower than the best you can find in ERCOT’s deregulated market, so they’re not in favor of it either.

@Steve Palmer, a council member doesn’t have the authority to deregulate Entergy’s service area. Entergy’s been trying to enter the ERCOT system for years, but has been repeatedly rejected. The cost would be upwards of $1B to integrate them. The cost would be borne by the entire ERCOT service area, not just Entergy’s customers, resulting in a 20% increase in rates. Entergy’s customers have for years enjoyed rated considerably lower than the best you can find in ERCOT’s deregulated market, so they’re not in favor of it either!

I’m all for the free market, as long as that market is actually free. This assumes that the market is not set up to maximize profits at the expense of the customer. In some cases, our government should protect us from predatory capitalism.

still waiting on those reduced rates for electricity from deregulation and those reduced rates for mandatory liability auto insurance and most of all those reduced rates from mandatory health insurance????? still waiting???? come to think of it I pay the same school tax with no kids as those that have kids. why is that??? still waiting???

Entergy actually owns its own part of the power grid. They’re regulated by FERC because they cross state-lines, but they don’t need to cut themselves off from anything. I haven’t seen anyone suggest that Entergy is against government regulation. That would only be CM Brown. She became part of government because she’s against it.

You have a point about Entergy not really being the issue here. But I think that there is a reason why the government must be involved in electricity regulation, no one wants a million different power lines running everywhere. It would be crazy expensive to have that duplicative infrastructure. The taxpayers do have skin in this game, as the state regulates entrants, provides subsidies for transmission infrastructure, etc. So, we have regulation of electricity provision. The state has the right to be involved.

You’re likely correct in that the utilities would not want the regulatory environment to collapse, as it would ruin their business model. So the utilities get something, but they have to give something… and that is regulatory oversight over their bills.

Houston votes in people who are immoral in their lifestyle and just plain out to lunch in politics. Houston you have a problem and you deserve every bit of it for putting these people into office. I suggest in your next election that you turn to people with moral character and sound political ability to lead with honor as the people they represent want not as they see fit.

I’m all for the free market, as long as that market is actually free. This assumes that the market is not set up to maximize profits at the expense of the customer. In some cases, our government should protect us from predatory capitalism.

I agree Scott. So many of these corporations will sell their own kids up the river for a profit. I am neither republican nor democrat, as an African American independent, I am for common sense economics. Wow, what a concept that would be…..Big government=police state… Small government= greed and no accountability…Just enough government=common sense economics…Think about it!

Brown is a clown. She is a darling of Drag Show Loving Michael Berry. If she had her way, there would be no paved roads, municipal water systems, street lights, etc. Also, she lives with her parents in Spring Branch and has never had meaningful gainful employment. I hope her district survives her two years, but I don’t think the city is in any hurry to fix anything in that disrtict.

onevois,
My guess is that you have neither lived in Germany nor speak German. I grew up in Nuremburg and was there last year.

Hitler and Nazism were like the Democratic party in the South from 1946 to the 1980s.

To quote Robert Duvall: “One guy asked me, ‘How can you be an actor and be a Republican?’. I can vote either way. But how can you boil it down to political affiliation? All the atrocities against blacks in the South were committed by Democratic sheriffs.”

Another grandstanding Palin clone coming your way to a nuthouse soon.
That lady could no more tell you about communism than ther is a man in the moon.
It’s in that area of public utility lady – has partially regulated for years for years.
Ask this one about Cuba and she’ll probbably tell you she knows a lot about em. Yep plenty – why she can almost see em from her condo in Galveston.

I’m quite certain she signed on to Ch. 42 and in so doing abandoned me, a constituent, to what is surely to be a vigorous porking. If she doesn’t care about what happens to me, and the neighborhood that I live in, how can she claim to be my representative? I’ll grant you that any Republican would do the same to us but at least we could’ve kept the adult on the council.

I’m not sure that there’s any way to criticize her constructively because in her mind what she’s doing is bold and heroic. In my mind it is something entirely different.

Ms. Brown is correct in her assessment as far as she goes.
In a free market no govt body, including the high and mighty buckpassers at Bagby St. has authority to ‘set’ prices any supplier can charge for any product to any willing customer.
The problem I see here is that ENTERGY got a carve out from the Texas legislature when we went to a less regulated market.
Ms. Brown should elaborate on ENTERGY’s crony capitalist special deal to maintain itself as a ‘no compete’ electric company.

Mr Feldman is flat out WRONG. Most of Kingwood (defined as north of the San Jacinto, east of 59 and south of the Harris/Montgomery border) is in CENTERPOINT’s area and can buy power from scores of suppliers. ENTERGY got a special pal deal from the legislature to maintain MONOPOLY service areas.
Mr. Feldman is city attorney and ought not be making such a large mistake, or was it a mistake?

I don’t see why everyone is picking on CM Brown, she is the Mother Teresa of District A, I for one have felt a great sense of calm since she got elected. No more having to worry about my CM running people off the road after a bender or crashing into things on her way home from a night cap.

No her parents live (Public record hcad.org) at 1513 Moritz where Helena is registered to vote. She has a townhome at 1715 Moritz # 27 “Moritz Townhomes” With bars on the windows and doors, a real dumpy property where she reports she is the President of the HOA. District A has this management style to look forward to. Not even prayers will help this one, Thanks to the voters who didn’t check her out before they went to the polls.

Brown is an idiot. Is there anyway she can be removed before this gets any worse? There must be some way to get her off council. Let’s put together an effort to call for her to resign. We have had a few losers on council in the past, but never have I seen such ignorance.

An education from St. Thomas University should have provided a better Council member. Maybe she can’t read Toni and Helen’s Text messages correctly. Are you guys sorry that your Girl Spat with Brenda has gone too far???

Brown showed up at Our Spirit Baseball Opening Ceremony in sandals with cracks in her feet and black dirt ground in those cracks. You think she could have washed her feet before showing up? Or don’t tell me she has some religious reason for not washing or getting a pedicure. Or her salary at COH is just too low for her to afford such a luxury!!!

Helena Brown is a complete loon, and don’t forget her lying chief of staff, Leticia Ablaza, who is another crackpot who tried to run for city council and will probably run again. The both of them are idiots and losers and have no business in politics. Shame on people like Paul Kubosh for being stupid enough to fund and back these losers and then everyone else suffers.

Councilperson Brown is so crazy that she will do fine and has a bright future in the GOP/Tea party circles. She would be great on the state or national level. Look for her in the future to be a power in the GOP. She’s a natural; insanity like that ‘don’t’ come easy. Peace